This problem is new. Even on a slower Raspberry Pi we did not see any flickering. Have you tried a different version of wxWidgets? 

Hi,

I have install drs software on ASUS EeeBox with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. When I try to use ./drsosc the oscilloscope window flickers. Can you suggest what might be the problem?

Here is some more info:

******************************************************

System:

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Memory: 992.9 MiB

CPU: Intel Atom CPU N270 @ 1.6GHz x 2

32 Bit

Disc: 156.5 GB

***************************************

Software:

Due to version Ubuntu I had to install the wxWidgets from source (wxWidgets with x11)

Thank you,

Dmitry.

Hi,

I wish to interface the DRS4 with the 8-channel ADC AD9222 (or AD9637).

I'm reading from the DRS4 datasheet that "the analog output of the DRS4 chip has been designed to match directly the input of the AD9222". OUT+ output of DRS4 is in the range from 0.8V to 1.8V and OUT- output is shifted by the voltage applied to the O-OFS pin.

The span of the AD9222 ADC core is defined by REFT and REFB which are resp. 1.4V and 0.4V in a typical case (AVDD=1.8V, VREF=1V). My understanding is that the ADC analog inputs must be within the voltage range defined by REFT and REFB and so I don't quite see how this matches the DRS4 outputs.

Can we use the full-scale range indeed? Do we have to use AC-coupling with mid-supply bias? What is the point I missed?

Thank you for your help.

Hello Andrey,

Thank you for your advise. But we never terminated the program before closing and deleting the DRS object. What we did was just executing the program multiple times 
repeatedly.

Akira

 OK!

Thanks for fast reply.

Andrzej

700 MHz is the minimal sampling frequency. If you need 100 MHz, just buy a "normal" commercial ADC.

Best regards,

Stefan 

Is it possible to set sampling frequency at 100 MHz in DRS4 eval board? Trying to set 0.1GHz in Osci program results in around 0.7 GHz. In drscl.exe i'm able to set freq at 0.1GHz but calibration is impossible.

Thank For Help!

Andrzej Rychter

Hi,

although I don't have a chance to test your code, it looks very similar to what I am using.

I can confirm that the DRS4 communication breaks down if the program talking to the DRS4 is closed abruptly or before is has a chance 
to properly execute "delete drs" where it closes the USB connection.

For me if I terminate the program that's using DRS4, the next time I might or might not be able to connect to the DRS4 because I would 
get a magic number or the program would just stop. The DRS4 eval board needs to be restarted via pulling the plug if the orange LED is 
not ON.

I have tried to power down the DRS4 board via software under SL6 linux, but the reality is that the DRS4 eval board is powered directly 
by the 5V USB rail off the computer, and you cannot software control that, you can only suspend the communication of the USB 
port/device.

So I don't have a solution to fix this issue, but my best advice is to change your software such that it calls "delete drs" to 
terminate the USB connection before you close or terminate the program.

Oh and I have not tried running multiple programs at the same time to see if that might be causing the issue as well. The usb library 
might simply error out saying the device is inaccessible because it's being used.

> Hello the DRS4 team,
> 
> I and some of my colleagues are using DRS4 evaluation boards (ver. 3) for the R&D of the Cherenkov Telescope Array project. During 
> our PMT measurements, we have encountered a problem which is probably related to USB connection. In fact, I cannot reproduce this 
> problem with my Linux virtual machine (Scientific Linux 5 64 bit), but other colleagues from three different universities in Japan 
> reported the same problem with their real machines.
> 
> === Short Summary ===
> DRSBoard::SetFrequency occasionally stops
> 
> === Environment ===
> - drs-3.0.0
> - Scientific Linux 5.5 (32 bit)
> - lib-usb-devel-0.1.12-5.1.i386
> 
> === Steps to Reproduce the Problem ===
> 1. Compile the attached file drs_simple.cpp with drs-3.0.0
> 2. Repeat the following command several times from a terminal
> 
> $ drs_simple -0.05 1000 ./outputfilename.dat true 2.
> 
> 3. The above command may stop. In that case, you need to kill the command by Ctrl-C.
> 
> === Comments ===
> - Once the command stops, we cannot run the above command properly.
> - If we unplug and plug the USB cable again, the command can be executed again.
> - It seems that the program stops inside DRSBoard::SetFrequency
> 
> I would very appreciate it if you could give me any advise. If you need further information, please let me know.
> 
> Akira

Hello the DRS4 team,

I and some of my colleagues are using DRS4 evaluation boards (ver. 3) for the R&D of the Cherenkov Telescope Array project. During 
our PMT measurements, we have encountered a problem which is probably related to USB connection. In fact, I cannot reproduce this 
problem with my Linux virtual machine (Scientific Linux 5 64 bit), but other colleagues from three different universities in Japan 
reported the same problem with their real machines.

=== Short Summary ===
DRSBoard::SetFrequency occasionally stops

=== Environment ===
- drs-3.0.0
- Scientific Linux 5.5 (32 bit)
- lib-usb-devel-0.1.12-5.1.i386

=== Steps to Reproduce the Problem ===
1. Compile the attached file drs_simple.cpp with drs-3.0.0
2. Repeat the following command several times from a terminal

$ drs_simple -0.05 1000 ./outputfilename.dat true 2.

3. The above command may stop. In that case, you need to kill the command by Ctrl-C.

=== Comments ===
- Once the command stops, we cannot run the above command properly.
- If we unplug and plug the USB cable again, the command can be executed again.
- It seems that the program stops inside DRSBoard::SetFrequency

I would very appreciate it if you could give me any advise. If you need further information, please let me know.

Akira

The DRSCallback *pcb is missing an if statement in the code when DRS Oscilloscope software isn't used when calibrating in function: int DRSBoard::CalibrateTiming(DRSCallback *pcb)

I had to add if (pcb != NULL) before each pcb call, like other functions are using so that the program doesn't segfault when the function is called like b->CalibrateTiming(NULL);

That's the only function that's missing this if statement for DRSCallback *pcb call, and there are 2 calls in this function to pcb that need fixing.

#11 0x080589de in DRSBoard::GetWave (this=0xb7456008, chipIndex=0, channel=0 '\000', waveform=0x40f24000, responseCalib=true, triggerCell=207, wsr=0, adjustToClock=false, threshold=1, offsetCalib=true) at src/DRS.cpp:3380

This is calling:

int GetWave(unsigned int chipIndex, unsigned char channel, float *waveform, bool responseCalib, int triggerCell = -1, int wsr = -1, bool adjustToClock = false, float threshold = 0, bool offsetCalib = true);

from DRS.cpp:
return GetWave(chipIndex, channel, waveform, true, fStopCell[chipIndex], false, 0, true);

false=0
true=1

As you can see offsetCalib ends up being defined by default, threshold set to 1 because of true, adjustToClock is false set by 0, wsr is 0 set by false, however threshold is never used with DRS4 eval board. So although it doesn't affect data retrieval, it's just dumb luck the function ends up being called with parameters that matter being exactly what they were meant to be.

  For http://www.psi.ch/drs/DocumentationEN/manual_rev20.pdf:

0 0x02 15..8 board_type 5 for DRS4 USB Evaluation Board 1.1 ---> should instead say Evaluation Board 2.0 ?

 I've been reviewing DRS.cpp v4.0.1

1) if(i==100) should be if(i==1000) in function int DRSBoard::SetFrequency(double demand, bool wait)

Otherwise if PLL did not lock, i = 1000, and the if statement is evaluating it against 100, not 1000 so it never gets triggered and the error goes unnoticed.

      if (wait) {

         StartDomino();

         for (i=0 ; i<1000 ; i++)

         if (GetStatusReg() & BIT_PLL_LOCKED0)

            break;

         SoftTrigger();

         if (i==100) {

            printf("PLL did not lock for frequency %lf\n", demand);

            return 0;

         }

      }

2) int DRSBoard::RegulateFrequency(double demand) does not seem to work at all, the frequency does not lock for either 2 or 5 GHz, tested using DRS4 v2.0 eval board with DRS v4.0.1 and v2.0.1 software's drscl tool.

3) In int DRSBoard::SetTriggerDelayPercent(int delay) and int DRSBoard::SetTriggerDelayNs(int delay), what is the purpose of Read and setting of "reg" if it's not being used or exported anywhere else outside of that function? Seems like Read and reg are called for nothing.

      Read(T_CTRL, &reg, REG_TRG_DELAY, 2);

      reg = (reg & 0xFF00) | ticks;

      Write(T_CTRL, REG_TRG_DELAY, &ticks, 2);

Also, I don't understand why in int DRSBoard::SetSyncDelay(int ticks), the code changes to 
      Read(T_CTRL, &reg, REG_TRG_DELAY, 2);
      reg = (reg & 0xFF) | (ticks << 8);
      Write(T_CTRL, REG_TRG_DELAY, &reg, 2);
In particular, reg = (reg & 0xFF00) | ticks; and reg = (reg & 0xFF) | (ticks << 8);  I'm not really sure but doesn't Read() with size 2 return a value that has a maximum value of 0xFF, or 8bits? But ticks << 8, since ticks == 255 max, makes 255 << 8 => 65280, which is now a 16bit value and size 4. No? I might be wrong here, and if I am then I don't understand what's going on. Can you please explain? In v2.0.1 the ticks were a maximum of 511 or 9bits, why did it change to 8bits?

4) A function is being called incorrectly in GetWave() in DRS.cpp

int DRSBoard::GetWave(unsigned int chipIndex, unsigned char channel, float *waveform)
{
   return GetWave(chipIndex, channel, waveform, true, fStopCell[chipIndex], false, 0, true);
}

The return is calling the following overloaded function:
int DRSBoard::GetWave(unsigned int chipIndex, unsigned char channel, float *waveform, bool responseCalib, int triggerCell, int wsr, bool adjustToClock, float threshold, bool offsetCalib)
the problem is that int wsr is not passed to the function and it thus causes implicit conversions where false is being cast into int, 0 into bool, and true into float.

I'll post more if I have any questions or spot any more bugs.

 I checked my project today and I think I need the file USR_LIB_VEC_IOFD_CPE_NALL.I don't know if is it a VHD files or a IP core.

I'll be extremely grateful.

  Hello everyone！I'm a new user of DRS4 board,but it seems that some files are missing in my demo project.So I hope someone could help me by sending a correct VHDL hardware project to my Email:lcyiss900@gmail.com.Thanks in advance!

T

The Domino wave anyhow is always active in mode 1, but you have to enable the writing to the memory cells (via the DENABLE signal). This is done with the b->StartDomino(). You are right that this call takes about 1ms over USB 2.0, so avoiding it would speed up the DAQ by about a factor of two. I have some plans to implement an automatic restart in firmware of the evaluation board, but I won't have time for that until fall of this year.

/Stefan

 hallo stefan,

I managed to fixed the problem. The problem was with the number I inserted to the function "b->SetTriggerSource" th get external trigger (it suppose to be "16" and not "4" or "12" as I understood from the function's comments).

Right now I'm trying to speed up the number of wavefrom  per second. I'm using your  drs_exam.cpp program you wrote as my basic program. When you wrote it you used the function "b->StartDomino()" inside the loop, which means that before every trigger you gave him a command to start the domino-wave.

From  the "DRS4 datasheet" (page 8) I understand that I can bypass the need to restart the  domino-wave by using "b->SetDominoActive(1)" and "b->SetDominoMode(1)", but when I tried it didn't work (the waveform I got every readout remain the same which means the dominowave froze after the first readout).

Am I understanding wrong or do I need to add somthing more\else so the domino-wave will not stop after each readout? is there any hazard by doing that, as mentiond in page 8 of the the datasheet?

thanks again,

Tmiron.

 Hi Stefan,

thanks for the quick reply, I know that this solution works with drscl but not within my code.

I tried to track it down, but gave up very soon. Seems as if AnalyzeWF() which is called by CalibrateTiming() finds to much zero-crossings when it is called the second time.

Regards

  -- Hermann-Josef

Ups, this is certainly a bug. Try to restart drscl between calibrations. Anyhow the calibration is poor (~20ps), so in a month or two we will have a much better one (~3ps), but that needs a new board (then will be called V5).

/Stefan

Hi,

is there any (obvious) reason why it is not possible (or not indended) to repeat the time calibration of a DRS4 eval board several times. I get the shown error message from the 'drscl' tool as well when I try to call the corresponding method in the support library:

mathes@ikauger5:~/src/DRS4> drs-4.0.1/drscl
DRS command line tool, Revision 20430
Type 'help' for a list of available commands.

Found DRS4 board  0 on USB, serial #2362, firmware revision 17662

B0> tcalib
Enter calibration frequency [GHz]: 5
Creating Timing Calibration of Board #2362
[==================================================]
B0> tcalib 5
Creating Timing Calibration of Board #2362
Error performing timing calibration, please check waveforms

As I will be in holidays, the answer is not urgent.

Thanks

 -- Hermann-Josef

No. IsBusy() is the only way the hardware trigger is checked. If there is no hardware trigger, you can issue a "fake" trigger (called software trigger) to stop the acquisition. This happens for example if you switch DRSOsc to "Auto" trigger instead of "Normal" trigger, very similar than a normal oscilloscope does.

/Stefan